UH should be able to release Jones' salary

The University of Hawai`i recently made a request to the Office of Information practices to be allowed to release the annual salary of its new football coach, June Jones. UH is required to gain permission before disclosing the salaries for anyone not classified as having a "special or unique" service.

This is asinine.

Students and taxpayers alike have a right to know how their money is being spent. The disclosure of June Jones' salary does not pose, by any stretch of the imagination, any sort of "clear and present danger."

The salary of our new football coach should not be a secretive matter. After all, it is our money that is paying a significant portion of his salary.

June Jones is not a professor or a standard faculty member -- without a doubt he provides the university with a unique service. He serves as a figurehead and representative of the university, and is paid head and shoulders above what other faculty members are paid.

It does not behoove the university or the state to be secretive. The state should grant the university permission to release the information.